. Animal studies. PROTECTIVE RESEMBLANCES, AND MIMICRY 353 withered leaves, these creatures change color, putting on a grayish and brownish coat of hair. The ptarmigan of the Eocky Mountains (one of the grouse), which lives on the snow and rocks of the high peaks, is almost wholly white in winter, but in summer when most of the snow is melted its plumage is chiefly brown. On the campus at Stanford University there is a little pond whose shores are covered in some places with bits of bluish rock, in other places with bits of reddish rock, and in still other places with sand. A small insect call
. Animal studies. PROTECTIVE RESEMBLANCES, AND MIMICRY 353 withered leaves, these creatures change color, putting on a grayish and brownish coat of hair. The ptarmigan of the Eocky Mountains (one of the grouse), which lives on the snow and rocks of the high peaks, is almost wholly white in winter, but in summer when most of the snow is melted its plumage is chiefly brown. On the campus at Stanford University there is a little pond whose shores are covered in some places with bits of bluish rock, in other places with bits of reddish rock, and in still other places with sand. A small insect called the toad-bug (Galgulus oculatus) lives abundantly on the banks of this pond. Specimens collected from the blue rocks are bluish in color, those from the red rocks are reddish, and those from the sand are sand-colored. Such changes of color to suit the changing surroundings can be quickly made in the case of some animals. The chameleons of the tropics, whose skin changes color momentarily from green to brown, blackish or golden, is an excellent example of this highly specialized condition. The same change is shown by a small lizard of our Southern States (Anolius), which from its habit is called the Florida chameleon. There is a lit- tle fish {Oligocottus snyderi) which is common in the tide pools of the bay of Monterey, in California, whose color changes quickly to harmo- nize with the different colors of the rocks it happens to rest above. Some of the tree- frogs show this variable col- oring. A very striking in- stance of variable protective resemblance is shown by the chrysalids of certain butterflies. An eminent English nat- uralist collected many caterpillars of a certain species of. Fig. 214.—Chrys=alid of swallow-tail but- terfly (Papilio), harmonizing with the bark on which it Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not p
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Keywords: ., bookauthorjordanda, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookyear1903
